Prof David Feldman
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Overview
Overview
Biography
David Feldman is Director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism and a Professor of History. He joined Birkbeck in 1994 having previously held lectureships at Christ's College, Cambridge and the University of Bristol.
David specialises in the history of antisemitism, Jewish history, the history of racialization and the history of migration in modern Britain.
In addition to his work as a historian, David is actively engaged in research which addresses public policy. He led a pan-European project exploring contemporary antisemitism in Western Europe. He has advised international institutions on policy issues connected with antisemitism including the United Nations, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and Human Rights Watch, and in the UK, the All Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, the Labour Party and the Football Association.
David provides expertise and advice on antisemitism to a wide range of political, philanthropic and cultural organisations as well as giving briefings and interviews to the media. His writing on the politics of antisemitism has appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Haaretz, History Workshop Online and The Independent. His most recent book, edited with Marc Volovici, is Antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Politics of Definition (Palgrave: 2023).
Professional memberships
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Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of England
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Member of the Association for Jewish Studies
ORCID
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Research
Research
Research interests
- Modern Jewish history
- Antisemitism
- Racialization
- Migration, immigration and emigration in modern British history
Research overview
David Feldman is currently writing a book titled "The Meanings of Antisemitism". Here he traces the meanings of the term ‘antisemitism’ – how it was used in political debate and what it was understood to be – from the nineteenth century to the present. Essays emerging from this project have appeared in the American Historical Review and Zion.
In the last decade or so David's work in Jewish history has followed four overlapping paths. First, he has been a pioneer of the imperial turn in Jewish historiography. Second, he has explored the place of Jews in the nineteenth century ‘culture wars’ and, in particular, the alliance of Jews and evangelical Protestants in their struggles with nineteenth-century Catholicism. Third, he has examined nineteenth-century debates on the extent and nature of the Jews’ difference from non-Jews. Fourth, he addresses historical and contemporary political concerns in his research and writing on the history of boycotts and history of the concept of antisemitism.
Research Centres and Institutes
Research clusters and groups
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Supervision and teaching
Supervision and teaching
Supervision
David welcomes research students interested in the history of antisemitism, Jewish history, the idea of race and the practice of racialization, and the history of immigrants and ethnic minorities.
Doctoral alumni since 2013-14
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SUE BLUNN
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JEMIMA JARMAN
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EMILIE WIEDEMANN
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ZELJKA OPARNICA
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JOSEPH RADCLIFFE
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SATYA GUNPUT
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HELEN CARR
Teaching
David Feldman contributes to teaching in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology on BA and MA programmes and teaches the MA module on ‘Jews and Antisemitism in Europe since 1848’. He convenes Birkbeck’s non-credit, short course ‘Facing Antisemitism: Politics, Culture, History‘.
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Publications
Publications
Article
- Gidley, Ben and Feldman, David and Mcgeever, Brendan (2025) Diane Abbott's suspension highlights the complexity of different types of racism. Political Quarterly blog ISSN 1467-923X.
- Mcgeever, Brendan and Gidley, Ben and Feldman, David (2025) The truth in Diane Abbott’s ill-judged remarks on racism. Prospect ISSN 1359-5024.
- Feldman, David and Gidley, Ben and Mcgeever, Brendan (2025) Against political purity. Vashti
- Feldman, David (2020) Antisemitism and Islamophobia. Zion ISSN 0044-4758.
- Gidley, Ben and McGeever, Brendan Francis and Feldman, David (2020) Labour and Antisemitism: a crisis misunderstood. The Political Quarterly 91 (2), pp. 413-421. ISSN 0032-3179.
- McGeever, Brendan and Gidley, Ben and Feldman, David (2020) Gauging antisemitism in Labour. RACE.ED
- Feldman, David and Gidley, Ben and Mcgeever, Brendan (2020) The EHRC report shows how difficult building real anti-racist politics will be. The Guardian ISSN 0261-3077.
- Feldman, David and Gidley, Ben and Mcgeever, Brendan (2020) The Labour Party and antisemitism: a crisis misunderstood. The Political Quarterly Blog
- Feldman, David (2018) Towards a history of the term anti-Semitism. American Historical Review 123 (4), pp. 1139-1150. ISSN 0002-8762.
- Feldman, David and Mcgeever, Brendan (2018) Corbyn’s Labour, British Jews and anti-Semitism: will peace now break out?. Haaretz
- Feldman, David and Mcgeever, Brendan (2018) Labour and antisemitism: what went wrong and what is to be done?. Independent ISSN 0951-9467.
- Feldman, David (2017) Mr. Lewinstein goes to Parliament: rethinking the history and historiography of Jewish immigration. East European Jewish Affairs 47 (2-3), pp. 134-149. ISSN 1350-1674.
- Feldman, David (2015) Evangelicals, Jews and anti-Catholicism in Britain, c.1840-1900. Jewish Historical Studies 47 (1), pp. 91-104. ISSN 0962-9696.
- Feldman, David (2014) Talking the talk: immigration policy since 1962. The Political Quarterly 85 (3), pp. 348-350. ISSN 0032-3179.
- Feldman, David (2013) Conceiving difference: religion, race and the Jews in Britain, c.1750-1900. History Workshop Journal ISSN 1363-3554.
- Feldman, David (2011) Jews in the East End, Jews in the polity, ‘The Jew’ in the text. 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century (13), ISSN 1755-1560.
- Feldman, David (2007) Jews and the British Empire c.1900. History Workshop Journal 63 (1), pp. 70-89. ISSN 1363-3554.
- Feldman, David (2003) Migrants, immigrants and welfare from the Old Poor Law to the Welfare State. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 13, pp. 79-104. ISSN 0080-4401.
- Feldman, David (1999) L'immigration, les immigrés et l’Etat en Grande-Bretagne aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Le mouvement sociale pp. 43-60.
Book
- Bale, Anthony and Feldman, David (2015) Blood: reflections on what unites and divides us. London, UK: Bloomsbury Shire. ISBN 9781784421380.
- Feldman, David and Lawrence, J., eds. (2011) Structures and transformations in modern British history. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521518826.
- Mazower, M. and Reinisch, Jessica and Feldman, David, eds. (2011) Post-War Reconstruction in Europe: International Perspectives, 1945-1949. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199692743.
- Lucassen, L. and Feldman, David and Oltmer, J., eds. (2006) Paths of integration: migrants in Western Europe (1880-2004). Amsterdam, Netherlands: University of Amsterdam Press. ISBN 9789053568835.
- Kolonitski, B. and Feldman, David Figes, Orlando and Kolonitsk, Boris, eds. (1999) Interpreting the Russian Revolution: the language and symbols of 1917. New Haven, Connecticut, USA: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300081060.
- Green, N. and Feldman, David, eds. (1998) Jewish workers in the modern diaspora. Oakland, Calafornia, USA: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520201286.
- Feldman, David (1994) Englishmen and Jews: social relations and political culture, 1840-1914. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300055016.
- Feldman, David and Stedman Jones, G., eds. (1989) Metropolis London: histories and representations since 1800. Routledge Revivals. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781138214088.
Book section
- Anscombe, Frederick (2023) Attitudes to Islam and Muslims in the Christian Balkans. In: Feldman, David and Volovici, Marc (eds.) Antisemitism, Islamophobia and the Politics of Definition. Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism. Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 9783031162657. (In Press)
- Feldman, David (2023) A retreat from Universalism: opposing and defining Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Britain, ca. 1990–2018. In: Ury, S. and Miron, G. (eds.) Antisemitism and the Politics of History. The Tauber Institute Series for the Study of European Jewry. Brandeis University Press. pp. 295-310. ISBN 9781684581795.
- Feldman, David (2013) Settlement and the law in the Seventeenth Century. In: King, S. and Winter, A. (eds.) Migration, Settlement and Belonging In Europe, 1500-1930s: Comparative Perspectives. International Studies in Social History. New York, U.S.: Berghahn Books. ISBN 9781782381457.
- Feldman, David (2012) Conservative pluralism and the politics of multiculturalism. In: Yuval-Davis, N. and Marfleet, P. (eds.) Secularism, Racism and the Politics of Belonging. Runnymede Perspectives. London, UK: Runnymede. pp. 10-12. ISBN 9781906732790.
- Feldman, David and Lawrence, J. (2011) Introduction: structures and transformations in British historiography. In: Feldman, David and Lawrence, J. (eds.) Structures and Transformations in Modern British History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1-23. ISBN 9780521518826.
- (2011) Why the English like turbans: a history of multiculturalism in one country. In: Feldman, David and Lawrence, J. (eds.) Structures and Transformations in Modern British History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 281-302. ISBN 9780521518826.
- Pick, Daniel (2011) Psychoanalysis, history and national culture. In: Feldman, David and Lawrence, J. (eds.) Structures and Transformations in Modern British History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 210-236. ISBN 9780521518826.
- Feldman, David and Lawrence, J. (2011) Transformations and structures in British historiography. In: Feldman, David and Lawrence, J. (eds.) Structures and Transformations in Modern British History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521518826.
- Feldman, David and Page Baldwin, M. (2006) L'emigration et l'etat brittanique, 1815-1925. In: Green, Nancy L. and Weil, François (eds.) Citoyenneté et émigration: les politiques du départ. Recherches d'histoire et de sciences sociales. Paris, France: Editions de l'Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales (EHESS). ISBN 2713221072.
- Feldman, David and Rosental, P.-A. and Douki, C. (2006) Pourune histoire relationnelle du ministère du Travail en France, en Italie et an Royaume Unis dans l’entre deux guerres: the transnational, le bilatéral et l’interministériel en matière de politique migratoire. In: Chatriot, A. and Join-Lambert, O. and Viet, V. (eds.) Les Politiques du Travail (1906-2006). Presses Universitaire de Rennes. pp. 143-159. ISBN 9782753503922.
- Feldman, David and Lucassen, L. and Oltmer, J. (2006) Immigrant integration in Western Europe: then and now. In: Feldman, David and Lucassen, L. and Oltmer, J. (eds.) Paths of Integration: Migrants in Western Europe (1880-2004). Amsterdam, Netherlands: University of Amsterdam Press. pp. 7-23. ISBN 9789053568835.
- Feldman, David (2003) Was the Nineteenth Century a golden age for immigrants?. In: Fahrmeier, A. and Faron, O. and Weil, M. (eds.) From Europe to North America. Oxford, UK: Berghahn Books. pp. 167-178. ISBN 9781571818126.
- Feldman, David (2002) Class. In: Burke, Peter (ed.) History and historians in the twentieth century. British Academy Centenary Monographs. Oxford, UK: OUP/British Academy. pp. 181-206. ISBN 9780197262689.
- Feldman, David (2001) Migration. In: Daunton, M. (ed.) The Cambridge Urban History of Britain, III, 1840-1950. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 185-206. ISBN 9780521417075.
- Feldman, David (1999) Jews and the State in Britain, 1830-1930. In: Brenner, M. and Liedtke, R. and Rechter, D. (eds.) Two Nations: British and German Jews in Comparative Perspective. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck. pp. 141-161. ISBN 9783161471063.
Exhibition
- Bale, Anthony and Volovici, M. and Feldman, David (2019) Jews, money, myth.
- Bale, Anthony and Feldman, David (2015) Blood.
Monograph
- Feldman, David (2025) Facing antisemitism: The struggle for safety and solidarity. London, UK: Runnymede Trust.
Other
- Gordon, M. and Feldman, David and Gidley, Ben and Mcgeever, Brendan (2025) The state of anti-antisemitism. Vashti.
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Business and community
Business and community
Media
I am happy to receive enquiries from the media on the following topics:
- Antisemitism
- Racism
Outreach
David Feldman provides expertise and advice on antisemitism to a wide range of political, philanthropic and cultural organisations. His writing on the Labour Party and antisemitism has appeared in The Guardian, Financial Times, Haaretz, History Workshop Online and The Independent. Together with Ben Gidley and Brendan McGeever his assessment and analysis of the crisis appeared in The Political Quarterly. He has appeared on radio and television in the UK and internationally and his opinion is sought regularly by journalists both for quotation and background.